1859.] EGEKTON OLD KED FISHES. 121 



submitted to his examination, it became necessary to give names to 

 certain forms as the means of identifying the objects, and facilitating 

 the studies of those desirous of consulting the descriptions. For in- 

 stance, in many of our ichthyolitic deposits, as in the Lias and Car- 

 boniferous strata, we find various forms of teeth or palates associated 

 with various kinds of defensive fin-bones. As no evidence was 

 obtained as to the correlation of these forms, it became necessary to 

 designate each by name, such names being considered provisional, 

 until such time as the desired information should be forthcoming. 

 The other extreme is perhaps exemplified in a recent work by 

 Dr. Pander, on the Devonian Fishes, in which he seeks to suppress 

 many of the Agassizian genera and species in whole or in part, and 

 include them in one or other of the five genera constituting the 

 family Placodermi of M'Coy. Ln this work Dr. Pander revives the 

 discussion (which I was in hopes had been set at rest by the pub- 

 lication of the Appendix to Agassiz's ' Poissons du Vieux Gres 

 Kouge') as to the priority of Eichwald's name Asterolepis over Pter- 

 ichthys of Agassiz, claiming for Parrott, Quenstedt, and Kutorga 

 the original discovery of Pterichthys, and for Eichwald the merit of 

 haying first named and described it. "Whatever the fragments upon 

 which these claims are grounded may be, to Hugh Miller is justly due 

 the merit of the discovery of this singular fish. Ln the first edition 

 of the ' Old Bed Sandstone,' published in 1841, he thus alludes to 

 the fact: — " Of all the organisms of the system, one of the most ex- 

 t inordinary is the Pterichthys or winged fish, an ichthyolite which 

 the writer had the pleasure of introducing to the acquaintance of 

 geologists nearly three years ago, but which he first laid open to the 

 light about seven years earlier." This dates the discovery as early 

 as 1831. The introduction to the scientific world was contained in 

 a letter to Sir It. Murchison, read before the Geological Society on 

 the 8th of May, 1839. A rival claim to the discovery of tbc •• winged 

 fish" has recently been put fortb by the ltev. George Gordon in favour 

 i if I)r. Maleolmson and .Mr. Stables, in the following passage :- ---" Dr. 

 Malcolmson's noble heart reached the acme of scientific satisfaction 

 on the 27th of March, L839, when his friend and fellow-labourer, 



.Mr. Stables, laid open in his presence a nodule at I.elheii Bar, that 



jirsi revealed a form clearl] distincl from any previously known fos- 

 sil." I>r. Malcolmson's paper was read before the Geological Society 

 on the 5th of June L839. Ii is therefore evidenl from the dates 

 given above, that, although Mr. Stables may have been the firsi to 

 discover Pterieh&ys in the Lethen beds, this discovery was some 

 years su I >si •« p k nt to that of Eugh Miller in the Cromarty deposit. 

 On referring to Pterichthys in Bronn's -Index Palaeontologious,' I 

 find ii thus noticed : — 



Pterichthys Mux. L840 (t. Brit, repl ; et Old red sandst., 



ESdinb. L842; rum A.e.)?=: Asterolepis Eichw. 



The cross reference is this : 



Asterolepis Eiehw. L840 ; Pterichthys Mill. (1840 •'. Urn. 



rept. i Old red Bandst., Edinb. 1842; non \>-.i 



